Some homeowners choose to contain the asbestos by carefully wrapping it in plastic while others decide to get rid of it once and for all. If you're getting rid of asbestos there are a few things I want you to know.

First, steam is a hot gas that desperately wants to give up its latent heat energy (an amazing 970 BTUs per pound!) and turn back into water. The steam will give up that tremendous amount of energy to anything that's colder than it is. In most homes, the steam that leaves the boiler is about 215 degrees F. That's hotter than just about everything else in the house, right? So when the steam hits a cold pipe, it will quickly make that pipe hot by condensing on it and releasing its latent heat energy.

And as soon as the steam condenses, it stops moving because, at that point, it's no longer steam. The colder the pipes are, the faster the steam will condense on them, and that's why the builders of old houses covered the steam pipes with an asbestos "blanket." Asbestos insulation keeps the steam hot. It prevents it from condensing too soon. It's like a thermos bottle. The Dead Men wanted that steam to stay hot so that it would travel further - like to the upstairs bedrooms. You don't need the basement to be 90 degrees, do you?

But let's say you decide to have that asbestos removed from your steam pipes. Are you going to replace it with a more suitable type of insulation? You should because if you don't, you're going to wind up with an undersized boiler. And with an undersized boiler, the rooms in your home will heat unevenly. Some will never get warm enough.

Others will be too hot. If your thermostat is in a room that has a cold radiator, your fuel bills will probably also increase because your burner will run longer than it should. You're also liable to get water hammer noise, especially if the asbestos abatement folks didn't do a good job of reattaching your pipe hangers. Sags in the pipes cause water to form puddles, and puddles cause problems in steam heating systems.

Insulation makes a huge difference when it comes to steam mains. Here's an example. Suppose you have a 2-1/2" steel main that runs around your basement. Let's say it's 50 feet long. Okay, the original installer covered that main with a one-inch-thick layer of asbestos insulation years before you were born. That was pretty standard practice.